SCHOOLBOYS AND GAMES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 268, 12 October 1932, Page 5

SCHOOLBOYS AND GAMES.

VALUE OF TEAM WORK,

INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE A DUBIOUS QUALITY. The value of school games in which there is a possibility of the player getting hurt was emphasised by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, Mr H. Bamsbottom, M.P., at the International Congress of Secondary Education, to-day, in Haberdashers Hall, London. Speaking on “Games and out of school activities,” lie said; “The finest games for schools are those which not only require high skill but which call • for individual effort, -as an element in the team work of the side as a vdiole, and also contain the possibility of. the player getting hurt. FOOLISH CULT.

“Rugby football is not a gentle game, hut all who have played it will -agree that it is the finest school game in existence, because it calls for high individual skill and effort, courage, fair play and combination. “Team games strengthen the quality of unselfishness, but tlie effect on character "which is caused by individual excellence at games is very dubious; and individual excellence at games leads directly to the foolish cult of athletic hero-worship. FUTURE CHAMPIONS.

“It is a task for the educator in England, to-day, to popularise the doctrine that the cricketer at the top of the batting averages is not really so great a man as the Prime Minister.

“Another danger of which the educationist must beware is making games •a form of forced labour for those who are not proficient at them. It is not the business of the schools to act as hothouses for forcing up international champions. Our future athletic champions will spring naturally, from good work done in tne schools. Let us hope that at least they will not become whole-time amateur lawn tennis players.”